The original, pure, heroic picture of Superman -- this superhero who is utterly uncorruptible -- was an ideal that you could look up to. And now they've done a marketing work-over on him: "Well, it seems your demographics are a little weak. We've brought in a stylist for the suit." There's such a loss of that naive innocence and maybe that's what's being reflected on the album.- Mike Turner

On Superman's Dead, Raine does this very playful little vocal thing. That happened because I asked him for something that wasn't just a guy singing. We struggled and he came up with this yodeling Raine-ism. I wanted a piece of everybody on the record. I told them just give me whatever it is you are. I don't want anything brilliant, because I don't know what that is. I want something only you can do.- Arnold Lanni, Words and Music, July 1997

It's just about how hard it is for kids to grow up today. They're inundated with the media and images and cliques they try to have to fit into. Two images that are really strong for me lyrically are `ordinary's just not good enough today,' and when I think of kids today, I would never think of a group of eight-year-olds going out to a baseball park and throwing the ball around.

It doesn't happen any more. I have a nine-year-old brother; he's either inside playing Nintendo or staying up late on a school night watching Beavis & Butt-Head. And you juxtapose that against the old Superman, on the black and white series. He was a real hero, good values, strong willed, a gentleman, but I think Beavis & Butt-Head wins today.- Raine Maida, Express Writer, 29 Aug. 1997

Media in general has made it pretty impossible to have an innocent view of heroism. No one can be a hero without there being an ulterior motive. You're not doing it because you're nice, you're trying to get something. That's sort of an element of what we're talking about in 'Superman.' It's not good, kids don't have their own identity because they get one made for them. Their told by advertisers, media and entertainment. What they like, who they should be friends with, what music they listen to, what clothes they wear. They have a complete identity that they learned to conform to by they're 15 or 16. They've had absolutely no personal investment in getting their own identity and that's not good.- Mike Turner, Canoe, 29 Nov. 1997

I think its [the lyric "the world's a subway"] basically saying, "Life is moving fast." It doesn't really stop, it just gathers speed. You can get off or stay on.- Jeremy Taggart, Hard Rock Live, 3 Apr. 2001